Samtel expects orders of 20,000 Airbus cockpit full colour displays

New Delhi: Indian electronics giant Samtel sees orders worth $100-150 million over the next decade for the full colour display (FCD) it has jointly developed with French defence and aerospace major Thales for the Airbus A-320/340 aircraft.
"We are looking at orders in the region of 20,000 FCUs over the next 10 years. It's a long-term project," an upbeat Puneet Kaura, executive director of Samtel Display Systems, said on the phone from the French capital where the FCD was unveiled for the first time at the Paris Air Show.
An FCU displays piloting and navigation aid data as well as system and warning parameters to the aircraft' captain and first officer. It can display multiple and variable parameters, synthesise a large quantity of data and combine the data used in the various phases of flight for display in different colours, thereby catering to the the requirements of different airline operators.
The FCU is the first product to be developed by the Sametel-Thales Avionics Pvt Ltd joint venture (JV) that aims at enabling India become part of the global supply chain for civil and military avionics.
The JV will initially focus on CRTs (cathode ray tubes) for the spectrum of Airbus civil and military aircraft, as also on helmet-mounted displays (HMDs) and multi-functional displays (MFDs) for the Indian Air Force (IAF).
Samtel and Thales hold 74:26 equity in the joint venture that was announced in May with a capital of $12.5 million with more investments to be pumped in as the joint development efforts progress.
Kaura wouldn't put a value on the FCU order, citing a confidentially clause but industry analysts placed it at $100-150 million over the next 10 years.
18/06/09 IANS/Economic Times

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